


Worked Like a Charm

by Kaoru_chibimaster



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Fluff, M/M, Magic, Meet-Cute, Rare Pairings, Slice of Life, like this whole thing is just fluff, past sokai mentioned, riku breaks the bro code, sora doesn't care
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-03
Updated: 2019-04-14
Packaged: 2019-09-06 04:31:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16825192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaoru_chibimaster/pseuds/Kaoru_chibimaster
Summary: Sora had been having the worst luck lately. That is, until he came across a certain charm shop…





	1. Lucky Lucky

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve honestly wanted to write a SoNami for quite some time now but couldn’t figure out what I had wanted the premise to be. I finally settled on this little idea and ran with it. I haven’t finished it so lord knows what the update schedule will be like.

“You’re getting married?!”

“ _Calm down, you make it sound like the world is ending._ ”

Sora huffed loudly, hearing the feedback echo in his own ear; quieter than what he was sure his brother had just heard. He wasn’t as exasperated as he made it sound, not really. If anything, he was making a fuss because he was caught so completely off guard. His brother, _his brother_ , was getting married.

Granted, not any time soon—he’d only just gotten engaged after all, and was calling to share the good news with Sora, but still.

_Roxas_ was getting _married_.

“Who are you and what have you done with my twin?”

“ _Stop being melodramatic. And here I thought you’d start singing with joy or something. You love weddings._ ”

Well… He loved the free food and the joyous atmosphere that came with weddings. The ceremonies themselves were as dull as dull could get, but Sora wouldn’t mention that. Besides, he really was happy for his brother. He was just…surprised.

And ‘surprised’ was an understatement.

“So let me make sure I have this right: You’re marrying Hayner?”

“ _I’m marrying Hayner_ ,” Roxas confirmed.

“You’re marrying _Hayner_??”

“ _Sora, I’ve been dating him for three years, why are you so surprised about this?_ ”

“Who popped the question? You?” Sora asked, scratching his head absentmindedly. After all, he couldn’t picture in his mind his twin standing there in shock while Hayner got down on one knee. Honestly, he couldn’t really picture it the other way around either. Both seemed rather content with leaving their lives the way they were for the past three years: just dating. Hayner, particularly, seemed allergic to anything that required extra effort…which weddings tended to do. Even the engagement itself seemed like something both Roxas and Hayner would normally be inclined to avoid. Yet _someone_ had to have broken that barrier and ask, or else they wouldn’t have been here now.

“ _I didn’t._ ”

“So…Hayner did?” That was about as likely to happen as Sora fighting crime with Donald Duck was.

“ _We mutually came to the agreement that we wanted to marry, Sora, geez is that so difficult to understand?_ ”

Yes.

But that was what made the situation all the more odd. What suddenly made them so eager to get…

Oh. Sora might’ve understood exactly, actually.

“You just want the benefits from being married, don’t you?”

“ _Shh. Don’t call me out like that, you toad!_ ”

“You’re really getting married just for that?” Seemed like a bit much.

“ _Yeah. In a courthouse. And we need a witness, so I thought I’d ring you up._ ”

Right.

As happy as Sora was to hear from Roxas, something that hadn’t happened very often since Sora had moved out of the apartment they’d shared and left it to his brother and Hayner, he wasn’t quite in the mood for traveling all the way across town to plan a wedding. He wasn’t really in a good mood for anything.

He hadn’t been for the past couple of months.

It’d been disaster after disaster for him. Bad luck every which way.

At first, it’d started off innocuously. Little things like Sora losing his keys, or his car not starting. Missing the tram to work, or stepping in dog poop. Things Sora was quick to brush off because he wasn’t going to let such things bring him down. No matter how his day started out, he always had the rest of it to look forward to. At first.

It’d gradually gone from little things to huge problems. He went from losing his keys to breaking them off in the lock. He’d managed to get into a car accident that turned into a hit-and-run. When the tram wasn’t late, which it’d been consistently so since he’d started taking it, it had actually broken down while he was on it. On top of having fallen down the stairs at one point, earning him a trip to the hospital. It was a wonder that, between the times he was late and the time off he’d taken to be patched up, he hadn’t been fired. And he didn’t even want to think about that, lest it happen to him next.

Sora was having shit luck; the kind not even he could smile through.

“I’ll see. I don’t want to miss it,” and he really didn’t. Despite the initial shock, Sora really was happy for Roxas. He knew Hayner was good for him. They’d been best friends for the longest time, after all, and it had only been a matter of time before they took it even further than that. “But who knows if I’ll even make it, with everything going on.”

As of now, Sora was on his way to pick his car up from the shop. Of course, as if mother nature herself was mocking him, she made sure it was raining on the very day he had to do so. Which, naturally, made the tram late. And with no umbrella, Sora could only hope his phone wasn’t going to end up with water damage.

“ _What, you mean that bad luck you’ve been having? I’m telling you, it’ll pass if you stop focusing on it so much. Thinking about having bad luck just gives you more bad luck._ ”

Sora only wished that was the case. Except ignoring his problems didn’t stop them from worsening. And here he was now…wandering down market street in the rain, hoping that the car repair shop didn’t charge him his life savings for the insulting amount of damage it had taken. Once he got a look at his bank account after the fact, there was no way he wasn’t going to think about it.

“Yeah, I’ll take your word for it,” Sora sighed, not wanting to start an argument over something so trivial. It’d be just his luck he’d piss his brother off and get uninvited from his wedding.

He was sure his brother would’ve rolled his eyes at him, huffed and puffed over the phone in response, and then made some sarcastic quip if Sora could’ve actually heard it. But, of course, his conversation with Roxas was instead abruptly cut off when a car drove by, splashing both the sidewalk and Sora.

Gritting his teeth in annoyance, he shook the water off of his phone and his hands, darting into the closest shop in search of refuge. Whoever owned it would probably kick him right back out for dragging water into the place, and he’d make a good case of begging to stay until the rain stopped at least…if that didn’t end up taking all night, but for now they’d have to deal. He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t be outside any longer, blindly hoping his bad luck spell would end.

As it turned out, running into the shop had been the right choice.

At first, it was simply the warmth seeping into his clothes and then his skin. The faint smell of peppermint and chocolate at his nose, so delectable he could practically taste it. The quiet Christmas-y music playing in the background, reflecting the fact that Christmas was in a few weeks. And then the quaintness of the shop started to sink in. There were decorations up, including a small tree and little cotton fluffs that simulated snow—amusing, considering how it rarely snowed in Twilight Town. Little figurines of reindeer lining shelves, and a village set up atop a fireplace.

So nice and homely that Sora didn’t notice the stranger knickknacks at first. One by one, the little charms inside their glass cases started to register to him. Gems and jewels that were more likely to be found in an expensive jewelry shop rather than a homely place like this. Handmade talismans and wooden figurines, some that almost eerily screamed ‘voodoo’, accompanied them. Charms made of glass or carved out of stone, runes in other languages…

What sort of place had he found himself in?

“Um…hello?” he called out, hoping to catch the owner’s attention. He wondered if it’d be some old witch-like woman with pale, papery skin. Or maybe an old man hidden beneath cloaks and a frizzy white beard? Maybe an eccentrically dressed person who jingled every time they moved, swathed in beads and loose polyester. Whoever they were and whatever they looked like, he figured he should at least be polite and let them know he was hanging around in their shop.

“If anyone’s there, I’m just gonna hang out in here for a bit? It’s raining pretty hard out…” he trailed off, slightly unnerved by the complete lack of response. Sighing again, he snuck a peek at his phone. Dead. At least, the screen wasn’t turning on and, judging by the lack of Roxas’ voice, the call had been cut. He was pretty sure he even saw a small pool of water within the screen. Great. Just another thing to add to the list of crappy things happening due to crappy luck.

“Uh… Hi?”

Jumping slightly, Sora swiveled at the sound of someone’s voice. Though it sounded much different from what he’d expected. And its owner certainly looked different from what Sora had expected. No beads or beards or papery skin. No cloaks or loose clothing. No jingling. Instead, there was a short blonde girl, around Sora’s age he guessed, wearing a comfortable looking white sweater and a pair of jeans. The only oddity was that she was wearing slippers rather than shoes, and even that wasn’t really that strange. Not compared to the wears she sold, at least.

Or rather…he figured she was the owner of the shop. Or maybe a customer?

“Did you…need help finding anything? Or are you just looking?”

Ah, nope. She was the owner. At the very least, she definitely worked there. _That_ was a customer service voice if Sora’d ever heard. He’d perfected it himself after all.

“No, I uh…” Sora poked a thumb back at the torrent outside. “I just needed to get out of the rain.”

The owner blinked, clearly surprised, as her eyes trailed over to the windows of her store front. Then it finally seemed to register to her what sort of sorry state Sora was in. She scanned his sopping wet clothes and hair, as well as the waterlogged phone in his hand, for only a moment before jumping into action.

“Let me go get you a towel!” she squeaked, a pink tint to her face. Probably embarrassed for not having noticed how he was forming a puddle on her hardwood floor until he’d pointed it out. It’d explain why she was so quick to turn on her heel and rush into a separate room, the thump of random footsteps rushing up a flight of stairs echoing through the shop.

Sora wondered for only a moment where she was going to get a towel from, unless she was old fashioned enough that the shop bathroom used a hand towel but he doubted something that small would even do much good anyway, before his attention was once again pulled away by her charms. Beyond the weird first impression they gave, their craftsmanship was admirable. More than a few of them were obviously homemade, judging by the frayed and uneven stitches, rough and bumpy carved surfaces and so on. That didn’t detract from them, though. On the contrary, they made them more…heh, charming. The amount of work she must’ve put into them alone made them worth buying. Maybe he’d get one himself, though he had no clue what he’d do with it. What were they even for, after all? They didn’t seem like the typical cute little charms people put on their cellphones. His younger sister Xion might find them amusing, but he doubted she’d even sport them on her bookbag. They couldn’t have been too popular with teenage girls and young women looking for something aesthetically pleasing then. Clearly they were popular with _someone_ though, if the shop was still in business.

He figured he might as well ask who, as he heard the telltale sound of someone rushing back down the stairs. Sure enough, a flurry of mussed blonde hair just barely registered before a fluffy white towel was shoved in his face.

“Here! Sorry about the wait!” she exclaimed, out of breath. Sora was quick to wave the apology off.

“It wasn’t even that long of one.” Barely a wait at all, if anything. She’d practically sprinted for that towel. Sora didn’t bother rushing as he dried himself off though. He was still lost a bit in thought, only half registering his own actions. His phone was still in his hand, and he only barely noticed it being pulled from his fingers.

“I can put this in some rice if you want,” the owner offered, clutching the phone gingerly in both hands.

“Nah, that’d take too long.”

She was already shaking her head, setting the phone down on the counter before rushing back into the other room and, from the sound of it, back upstairs. Not sure what to say to that, Sora finished rubbing his hair dry before draping the towel over his shoulders. It was hopeless to go any farther than that, really. He’d have to go back outside into that mess anyway so he could pick up his car…and end up soaking the seats through once he got back in it, because of course he could no longer have nice things.

“Here!” the owner—and he really ought to learn her name so he’d stop calling her that in his head—shouted, running back into the main room. “You can keep the bag.”

And sure enough, she had a small bag of rice sagging between her fingers, crinkling every time she huffed for breath. It was…kinda cute, how determined she was to help him out in some way. Not that he could really think about that right now, not when he was torn between not having a car and paying the remainder of his life, what was left of it that hadn’t been spent on college, away to repairs. Still. He decided he liked the owner of this strange charm shop.

Speaking of…

“So…what’re all these for?” he asked. She’d already gotten started on tearing the bag open, plopping it on the counter before picking up his phone and pulling the back off. He doubted he’d be keeping the rice at this point.

“Hmm.” It was odd that she seemed to be considering his question as she absentmindedly pulled a few tissues out of the box sitting at the end of her counter and started blotting the uncovered back of his phone with them. After all, shouldn’t she know what she was selling?

“It’s…well, it’s a good luck charm shop, I guess?”

A question? Even weirder.

“You guess?”

“Well…there’s a little more to it than that. It’s like…no, never mind that. It kinda ruins the magic to explain how it works, don’t you think?” she giggled, glancing at Sora with a coy, almost secretive look in her eyes. Not in a sinister sort of way, but as if she was sharing a harmless inside joke. Grinning back, he decided he wouldn’t ask, then. Didn’t want to ‘ruin the magic’.

“So do they actually work?”

“I wouldn’t be in business if they didn’t.”

True, she had a point. That was what he thought anyway. There had to be _some_ point to her charms. Still, he wasn’t exactly expecting good luck charms. Then again, glancing around at the little voodoo-esque dolls, maybe he should have.

Shame she wouldn’t tell him how they worked, though. _If_ they worked. He couldn’t just believe good luck charms actually functioned as such. Much as he enjoyed his daily dose of faith, trust and pixie dust, not even he was willing to pay that sort of thing much mind beyond the movies.

Still…she _was_ in business… Maybe there was more than met the eye there? And honestly, at this point?

He could use a good luck charm.

“Think you might sell me one?” He quirked a smile at her, indicating himself with one arm. “As you can see, I could definitely use one.”

Sora barely caught the amused upturn of his host’s lips before she turned her head, tucking his phone into the rice and pinching the ripped plastic edges closed.

“I’ll go find a few safety pins to close this up with and…” she trailed off, nodding to herself after a short pause. “I’ll find you a good charm.”

Once again, she disappeared behind that door. Shrugging to himself, Sora decided it’d be safe to move from his wet spot on the floor and explore a bit. He wouldn’t go beyond the main room, not unless she invited him to. Could’ve been off limits to customers after all. But he wanted a closer look at her wears.

Wandering to the counter, he placed his palms against the display glass and leaned over to peer closer at everything within. This main display seemed to be composed of her best and most well-crafted charms. More than a few of the charms looked to be carved out of wood, beautifully in fact. One shaped like a conch shell that reminded him of the ones he used to find along the beach back when he lived on Destiny Islands. One carved into an old-style skeleton key with an oddly wide handle. One carved into a simple heart shape with swirling designs carved into it. One that was clearly meant to be set in someone’s house instead of being carried around: an amazing replica of the clocktower. If she’d done this herself, she was clearly an artist. The amount of work that must’ve went into them alone was worth admiring. Near them, trinkets molded from clay and glossed to shine like glass sat prominent. Symbols and objects that seemed to represent something, or someone, all smooth and symmetrical. Yarn woven keychains in creative and colorful shapes sitting at the very bottom, contrasting the bright gemstones that lined the top of the display. All under lock and key, of course. They looked expensive, after all.

Sora wondered what sort of charm he would get.

As if on que, the owner came rushing back down with a box of safety pins in one hand and something wrapped in tissue paper in the other. Setting the wrapped item down, she was quick to pin up the bag of rice, somewhat unevenly, before pushing it towards him.

“Leave it in there for a day or two. Oh! I should also get you a plastic bag to keep it safe. But first…”

Foregoing that for the moment, she instead grabbed the wrapped item, pushing the paper aside before pulling out a bright yellow, star shaped item. It was pushed into his semi-dry hands with care, and he cupped the charm just as carefully, making sure not to drop it. It was heavy, but smooth. Glossy. Seemed to be made of glass, in fact. And it looked like…

“A paopu fruit?”

She nodded. “Like the ones from Destiny Islands. You do look like you could be from there, Sora.”

Sora blinked at her, taken aback.

“I…never told you my name.”

The owner seemed to backtrack a bit, her eyes widening as her face blanked. She even physically took a step back, pausing for a moment before steeling herself with a shake of her head.

“Oh, you’re right! We never introduced ourselves.” She held out a hand. “My name’s Naminé.”

Hmm.

Sora wasn’t quite sure how to react to Naminé, knowing for certain there was no way she could’ve found out his name. His current job didn’t make him wear a nametag, so he knew he couldn’t have just forgotten he was wearing one. His phone was in front of him the whole time, still dead, so she couldn’t have learned from that. He knew he never told it to her.

He didn’t know if he wanted to consider the possibility that she actually used magic.

He wasn’t going to leave her hanging based on that kind of assumption though. She hadn’t kicked him out of her shop yet, despite the fact that he was sure he’d ruined her floors, and she’d done nothing but help him since he arrived. He’d ignore it for now. Instead, he shifted his charm into one hand and clasped his other one with hers to shake it, adopting a joking tone.

“I’d tell you ‘I’m Sora’ but I guess I don’t have to now.”

Naminé grinned sheepishly but didn’t comment on that. Seemed like he wasn’t getting an explanation out of her then. He wouldn’t worry about it.

“Nice to meet you, Sora.”

“Honestly? Same,” he laughed. “You’re kind of a life saver right now.”

This pulled a chuckle out of Naminé as well, one that she covered with the back of her hand once she’d let Sora’s go.

“Glad to help,” she smiled. It was much more genuine than the earlier customer service one she’d painted on. Sora decided he liked that too. He ought to come back someday. Maybe to buy another charm. He didn’t know whether or not his current one was actually going to work, but the good craftsmanship she put into them made them worth buying for decoration alone.

While he had that thought in mind, he figured he should probably pay for the current one he was getting first though.

“Here, how much is it?”

Naminé hummed in question before her gaze flitted to the charm Sora was still holding, and she immediately shook her head and waved her hands at him.

“Oh no, no! Just take it. I think you need it.”

Sora frowned a bit at that. As nice as the gesture was, it didn’t feel right to just take something from someone. Especially something that looked like it took a lot of work to make. She deserved to be compensated for that. He pulled his wallet out anyway.

“No way, it’s totally fine. I would rather pay you, just tell me how mu—”

Sora paused, his words trailing off as he got a peek at the inside of his wallet. Empty. He was willing to part with his cash, mostly because he needed any money on his credit card to handle his repairs, but now? He didn’t even have that. He wasn’t even sure what he’d spent his last cash on at this point.

Gritting his teeth, he started to pull his card out.

“Sora, really. Don’t worry about it,” Naminé said, placing a hand over his to stop him. “If you really want to pay me, come back and buy something else.”

“But…”

She shook her head at him again, a lot more calmly this time.

“I mean it. It’s the least I can do.”

Well… She really was giving him a break… And he supposed if she was honestly that okay with him keeping it without paying for it, he’d take it. He wasn’t really in the best position to look a gift horse in the mouth, after all. His smile was back in place as he clutched the paopu charm tightly.

“Thanks, Naminé.”

She smiled back, clasping her hands together behind her back and shrugging.

“Like I said, it’s the least I can do.” She turned then, reaching behind the counter and pulling out two plastic bags. She placed the bag of rice inside one of them, wrapping it up into a ball before putting it inside of the other bag. Sora took it once she held it out to him, placing the charm inside of it as well. He didn’t feel much different, carrying it around. But just having a chance to converse with someone who was so willing to help him lightened his mood considerably. He didn’t feel quite as much dread having to pick up his ruined car then.

“Good thing I came in here,” he grinned, earning yet another laugh.

“Maybe luck brought you here?” she winked, amusingly. Sora shook his head, chuckling.

“If that’s the case, you must be planning on burying me in your backyard,” he joked, before adding in a more serious tone. “That’s the kinda luck I’ve been having.”

“Well…lucky for you I don’t have a backyard…” Naminé trailed off, letting the joke hang in the air before it sent her into another small fit of giggles, the giddiness spreading to Sora and infecting him as well.

“I’m glad for that. Guess I’m safe for another day.”

“I hope so. I’m looking forward to seeing you again,” Naminé said, pausing for a bit, as if in surprise, before her cheeks flushed pink again. “That is…if you want to.”

“I will. Promise.” Sora held out his pinky, hoping it would brighten her mood as well. She seemed to not be used to people returning, and Sora had to wonder why because it wasn’t as if the shop itself didn’t have plenty of reasons to return for—let alone its incredibly kind owner, so he figured it wouldn’t hurt to break that mold. And she seemed to be happy with his answer, judging by the grateful look in her eyes as she intertwined her pinky with his.

“I’ll see you, then. I should let you get back to what you were doing, now that the rain’s clearing up a bit. Unless you want to stay for a while longer? I don’t mind that.”

Sora turned his head to peer out the window, finding that the rain was indeed lighter than it was when he’d run into the shop. There was still a light drizzle, but it wasn’t anything worth being deterred over. And Sora really did need to pick up his car from the shop before it closed…

“I do have to head out. But I’ll come back soon, okay?”

“Okay,” she nodded once more. Pulling her pinky from Sora’s, she darted behind her counter this time and ducked down, coming back up after a second with an umbrella in hand. “Before you try to tell me no, I have a bunch of free ones under here and you look like you really need it.”

Sheesh. Sora wasn’t sure he’d ever received so many free things in his life. Really, he didn’t know how good he felt about taking more, but she _was_ offering and she did say it was already free in the first place.

He supposed it wouldn’t hurt in the end.

“Thanks again. Really. You’re a lifesaver.”

“Oh, I know,” she snickered, the coy grin back to show that she was still joking. “And you’re welcome. Really. Now go get your car; don’t let me hold you up.”

Huh.

He hadn’t said anything about his car either.

Letting that slide as well, Sora only smiled back and waved at her before turning around and heading on his way. He’d have to find a way to keep the charm safe as he carried it around, and he was gonna have to pray his phone wouldn’t take further water damage, but his visit to Naminé’s shop really had helped him out more than he could’ve hoped for. Opening the umbrella up, Sora looked up at the store front in hopes of remembering the name so that he could come back later. In quaint, painted letters on a board above the door read the words ‘Lucky Lucky’. Fitting, for a good luck shop. He’d have to keep it in mind. It was right along main street, so it wouldn’t be hard to find.

Continuing on his way, it would only be a matter of time before he reached the repair shop. With the rain letting up even more, barely even a light drizzle at this point, he doubted it’d take him any more than a few minutes. He was still soaking wet, his phone out of commission, and his wallet aching with the phantom pain of the emptiness it was about to experience, but he still felt at least a little bit lighter as he walked. Emotionally, at least. Physically, he felt a little more bogged down than usual but then what else could he expect, being clad in soaking wet clothes. On top of that, the towel around his shoulders…

Oh.

Well. Now he definitely had a reason to go back.


	2. Key

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Somehow this chapter didn't turn out at all the way I originally planned it.

Sora found himself twisting the loose threads of Naminé’s towel between his fingers absentmindedly as he waited for the morning tram. He’d already bought a monthly pass for it, so even though he’d gotten his car back—and the bill along with it—he was going to make the most out of his remaining December’s worth of public transit. And it would save him the trouble of having to find somewhere to park along Market Street anyway.

He kept the charm she’d given him in his pocket from the moment he’d stepped foot outside his door that morning. So far, not much had changed. He wasn’t having the absolute shit luck he’d been experiencing for such a long while, but it didn’t seem to bring the best of luck either. Maybe it took a while to kick in? He did notice one thing, though. He felt even lighter that morning than he had the previous day after he left the shop, like a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders. It was as if those past few months had all been just one long bad dream. He couldn’t even really think back on the experiences and consider them bad anymore. As far as he was concerned, they simply never happened.

That felt more like him: focusing on the good experiences and not the bad. He was glad he could just forget about the unlucky moments. He didn’t need them weighing on his mind and making life more stressful. Maybe that was why he felt lighter.

Lurching a bit as he felt the tram pull to a stop, he was dragged out of his thoughts as he realized his own stop was getting closer. It was a bit closer to Station Heights, where most of the shops happened to be, but still in the more business oriented area of the Tram Common. Normally he would have long since gotten off to get to his job, a small cultural center where he got to teach kids about his home islands—ie his most favorite job in…ever, but this was a bit uncharted in terms of tram rides. Sure he’d driven down this way plenty of times, his brother lived in the apartments past the Sandlot and he often went to the station to go see his parents and sister on Sunset Terrace, but he was feeling jittery about missing his stop. The next one would place him right at Station Heights and that was a long walk.

Peering out the window, Sora had his fingers gripped around the cord, ready to pull when his stop was coming up. And once he did, he nearly fell over when the tram lurched to a stop. A few people looked over and stared at him, but he ignored them and pulled his pass out to scan before getting off.

Out on the street, with his feet firmly on the ground, Sora looked around at the shop names in search of the cursive gold lettering. Lucky Lucky…

Ah. There it was.

He gripped the towel tightly in his fingers, fully aware of the weight of the charm in his pocket. He wasn’t sure why he was feeling slightly apprehensive; the weather was bright and sunny, warm of course since Twilight Town didn’t know how to be any colder than mildly chilly in winter, the people walking around Market Street were all cheerful and chatty, there were children playing grandstander over by one of the shops, and all around the atmosphere was as uplifting as ever. Yet he felt…nervous? Like he didn’t know if she was really gonna be there when he walked in again.

But that was nonsense. She was the owner of the shop, she couldn’t just up and disappear. And, as he took a deep breath and pulled the door open, he found that she was indeed still there. Behind the counter this time, talking to two people who, judging by the detached expression she held, must’ve been customers.

“…Honestly, you could stand to spruce this place up. It looks like some old witch lives here. It _smells_ like some old witch lives here.” The woman’s voice drifted over to the entrance, and Sora raised an eyebrow at the familiar way she spoke to Naminé. Maybe they weren’t customers then?

“Incense make people feel welcome, El,” Naminé answered. Now that Sora thought about it, the look on her face was less detached and more strained.

“More like they make people feel lightheaded. Ugh, I might barf.”

“Don’t be rude, Elrena,” came the bored tones of the man’s voice. Sora had to double take at him, having just then registered his bright pink hair.

“I think the incense are fine. She is right in that pleasant smells make people feel welcome,” the pink haired guy continued.

“Don’t even. You and Liz own a flower shop; I doubt your nose even works anymore.”

Sora stepped fully into the shop as the blonde woman spoke, indeed noticing the smell of incense once he was inside. It was different from yesterday’s more Christmasy scents, and more fitting to the atmosphere of the shop. It certainly came across as the sort of place to use incense.

Though, if he was being honest, he missed the homely feeling the chocolate and mint gave him.

Naminé had seemed ready to respond to her guests until she looked over at Sora, having finally noticed him. He was surprised, and pleased, to see her smile turn into something a lot more genuine.

“Sora!” she exclaimed. Her guests turned their attention over to him, making him twitch slightly at their scrutiny. The blonde woman in particular peered at him with sharp, almost hawk-like green eyes, almost as if she was seeing through him, before her gaze cut to Naminé and then back to him again. Back and forth again and again as a questionable look of realization crossed her face. It was as if a lightbulb flicked on in her head.

“Ohhh!”

“El…” Naminé said warily.

“I’m surprised!” ‘El’ cooed. “And here I thought you got all flustered around boys.”

“Stop teasing her El,” the pink haired man said, though he seemed to be grinning teasingly as well. Sora recognized the expression well enough. His siblings made the same faces all the time. “Besides, we did what we came here for.”

“You’re such a killjoy,” El complained, clicking her tongue at the man. He ignored her, looking back at Naminé and waving at her, wiggling his fingers playfully.

“We’ll see you later, then.”

“Tell Strelitzia I said hi,” was Naminé’s only response. She didn’t wave back. It didn’t seem to deter the pair, who only strutted out the door with one last sly glance at Sora as they passed him. He turned to her with an eyebrow still raised, questioningly silently. She waited until the door closed fully before finally answering, her shoulders slumping slightly as she sighed.

“I do a lot of online orders for my shop, so Lauriam often comes over to help me sort out all of my orders. And wherever Lauriam is, Elrena’s not far behind.”

“You don’t seem to like them much,” Sora said, stepping up to the counter and leaning on it with his arms crossed. Naminé mirrored his posture, shrugging.

“Eh.”

Sora snorted at that.

“Who are they anyway?” he asked, grinning. Naminé’s expression was the opposite as her brow creased slightly and her lips were downturned. She looked down at her arms, still crossed over the counter as her fingers curled into fists, and Sora’s grin faded.

“They’re… _were_ my, uh… They were my…” she drifted off, looking a bit uncomfortable.

“It’s okay. You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,” Sora reassured her. It must’ve been something personal.

“No, it’s fine. It’s just not something I bring up around…I guess we’re not really strangers anymore though, huh.”

He supposed technically they weren’t, since they’d introduced themselves the day before, but still. If it was personal, she didn’t need to feel like she had to explain.

“And I don’t feel like I need to tell you or anything, but you did already see them and I’m sure you’re wondering.” She was doing _that_ again. How she was doing it, Sora had no clue. “They’re my foster siblings.”

“Oh! That’s all?” That wasn’t anything to hide. Maybe it was as personal as Sora had thought, but if she was willing to tell him then he was only glad she trusted him. But it certainly wasn’t something to be embarrassed about.

Naminé bit her lip though, finally meeting his eyes again.

“Is that too much?”

“Too much…?”

“You know. TMI?”

Oh.

“Not really. They’re still your siblings, even if it’s not from birth.”

“No, I mean…”

_Ohhh_.

“That’s…on you to tell me. But it’s not something I’d ever judge you for.” So what if she was a foster kid? That didn’t make her any different from anyone else.

Naminé smiled at that…that being either what Sora said or what he thought, he honestly wasn’t sure and he wasn’t going to question it, and he was glad that he could bring her mood up even a little.

“Still, I think it’s pretty normal to dislike your siblings,” he joked. Oh, he loved his brother and sister. Very much. But it was only on special occasions that he _liked_ them.

At the very least, Naminé did laugh that time.

“I guess so. They’re a lot better than they used to be. I only knew them through my last few years of high school, and they were pretty horrible then. I think they just needed some growing up though, so I don’t dislike them as much. Still… It’s hard to forget.”

That…was definitely getting personal, and Sora felt that wasn’t water he ought to be treading when he barely knew her for a day. Still though, he couldn’t resist placing a hand on her shoulder for comfort. And it lifted the heavy atmosphere a little bit when she smiled and placed her hand over his own.

“Thank you.”

Sora was the one to shrug this time as, slowly, his grin started to reform. He squeezed her shoulder lightly before letting go in order to shuffle closer.

“Here, a story for a story.”

“Huh? You don’t have t—”

“No, it’s cool. So my dad used to get around a lot before he met my mom. They had kinda this fairy tale romance going on.” Or so he and his siblings were told. “But before that he never stuck with one girl. So sometime after he moved to the islands and met mom, he gets a letter from one of the girls he used to, uh…you know. And it turned out she had his kid and was asking for child support…except he was dirt broke from moving to DI, paying for a wedding, and getting ready for me and Roxas to be born. Apparently it blew up in his face and there was a whole court mess and he wasn’t even there when my mom had me and my brother ‘cause he was still dealing with that whole thing. And this kid’s mom refused to even let Dad see him until he paid up so… Long story short, I have a half brother that I’ve never met. Honestly, I only even know this because I heard my aunt talking about it.”

There. That was personal enough, he supposed. Certainly not the sort of thing he would normally tell someone he just met—hell it’d taken a lot of courage to even confront his own parents about it—but he figured it might offset some of the awkwardness of Naminé confessing her own childhood situation. His was more of a funny story one might tell a close friend over drinks just to laugh at someone else’s old mistakes for a bit, but even then there was an underlying seriousness to the situation. He wondered if he’d _ever_ get to meet his other brother. Either way, it was a story for a story, just like he’d said. And it seemed to lift at least a little of the sour mood off of Naminé.

“You really didn’t have to,” she sighed again, this time shorter and lighter. “But thanks.”

“Well, I’d say it was one hell of an ice breaker,” he laughed. She joined in, covering her mouth with her hand again.

“I guess it was.”

“Hey, we could do that more!” Sora suggested. “Maybe not with as heavy stuff, but we could do the whole ‘you ask a question, then I ask a question’ thing!”

“Is that what we’re doing?” she chuckled. “I thought you just came back for another charm. Well, that and my towel.”

Naminé nodded at the balled up towel Sora had set on the counter without even thinking. Sheepishly, he scooted it over to her.

“Yeah, sorry about that. I forgot I had it when I left.”

“That’s alright.” She picked it up and set it aside behind the counter, next to an open laptop displaying what Sora assumed were the online orders she’d mentioned. “It was nice of you to bring it back.”

“Well of course. I’m not gonna go around stealing towels.”

That pulled another smile from her.

“I know you wouldn’t.”

Hmm.

“Are you psychic?”

Naminé paused at that, pursing her lips. The look on her face this time was more unreadable. Not guarded exactly, but not as open and carefree as it had been. He couldn’t help asking, though, despite his earlier resolve. It was hard to not question it when she constantly did… _that_.

“Are we already starting on the questions?”

“Sure.” If it’d get her to answer it.

“…No.” She left it at that.

“Well…alright. I guess it’s your turn to ask then.”

“Mmkay. Let me think of one.”

As she did that, placing her hand under her chin in what Sora assumed was her ‘thinking pose’, he looked over her wares again, this time in hopes of finding something to buy. He did say he would come back for another charm, and he did mean it. He wasn’t sure if he really should’ve been spending more money on stuff he didn’t _need_ , but he was a man of his word. And besides, he wanted to come back. It’d have been a let down to do so and not make a purchase, seeing as she was a business owner.

“I think you might like the shell,” she suggested. He did like it, when he thought about it, and it was beautifully crafted, but…

“I think I should be looking at something I can afford.”

“Oh, you’re right. Most people don’t go for these ones immediately.” Naminé hummed in thought, her hand still under her chin as she tapped her finger. An idea seemed to come to her then, and she reached under the cabinet to grab a key, unlocking the glass case and pulling out the charm shaped like a skeleton key. It was big, about the length of his forearm, and seemed to be made out of metal, in contrast to the vast majority of wood, clay and glass charms found on that shelf. Naminé set it down gently on the counter.

“No one ever seems to want this one,” she said. “So I’ll take whatever you’re willing to pay for it.”

Gingerly, he picked it up with both hands. It was heavy, definitely made of metal then, and shone glossily as if it was polished every day. Simple as the design was, the craftsmanship was incredible.

“This is amazing. Did you really make this?”

She shook her head.

“Not that one. The metal ones I have commissioned. I do make most of the other ones though. Art is kinda my thing, so I figured I’d make a job out of it.”

“That’s still really cool!” Sora set the key back on top of the counter as gently as he could. He cringed a bit at that clank it made against the glass, but Naminé paid it no mind.

“I guess. I get the feeling people don’t buy my stuff for the art, though,” she said, grinning wryly.

Right. This wasn’t _just_ a charm shop.

“So…this’ll give me good luck on top of my paopu charm, or…?”

“It’s more for your home. To ensure you always feel safe and secure.”

That was nice and all, but Sora had always felt that home was back on the islands. He’d moved in middle school, just before Xion started, and he’d missed the place ever since. He missed his friends. He missed his school. He missed being able to go out on the beach and feel the sand bury his feet as the wind and the ocean spray blew around him. He didn’t see his very best friend again in person until Riku had started college and moved to TT for the bigger university. It gave him back a little of what he remembered but it didn’t compare to the real thing. He didn’t think he’d ever get that back, not in Twilight Town at least. But he would take the charm anyway. If Naminé said it’d make his apartment feel more secure, he’d take it. Even if it wasn’t _home_ , he still lived there.

“Sure, I’ll take it. How much?”

“I told you—”

Sora interrupted her there.

“I don’t want to feel like I’m robbing you or something.”

“You’re really not. Hmm…” This time she stood straight, a hand on her hip as she contemplated. Really, it was kind of adorable how she went into her thinking poses. Sora found himself ducking his head to hide an amused smile.

“How about…twenty five?”

That…was a lot cheaper than he was expecting.

“Is that actually how much it costs?” he asked skeptically.

“Hey, it’s like I said, no one ever seems to want this one. Besides, it really does work. Makes your home feel like, well, _home_.”

“Uh huh…” Now he was raising both eyebrows at her, still skeptical. He trusted her judgment on the item itself. But he wasn’t convinced she wasn’t in some way clairvoyant.

“Telepath?” he asked. Giggling, she shook her head no.

“I swear to you, I can’t read minds. And anyway, isn’t it still my turn to ask a question?”

Right…

“Ask away,” he said, pulling out his wallet and passing her his card. He still had no cash, something he hadn’t even thought to rectify when he left his apartment that morning, but what little was left on his card was certainly enough to cover twenty-five munny.

“What was your home like? Destiny Islands, I mean?”

“…I never specifically said I was from the Islands,” he mumbled, his eyes on her hands as they swiped the card at the register before handing it back.

“Let’s just pretend you did. Tell me about them?”

That was a bit of a loaded question. How did one describe the feeling of nostalgia he felt when he thought of the sound of the waves? The bright blue skies and the brilliant red sunsets. Sure, Twilight Town was unmatched in how beautiful its sunsets could be, but they didn’t hold up to the islands as far as Sora was concerned. They couldn’t replicate the feeling of standing on the pier, skipping stones on the water. Listening to the laughter of his friends and family as they played in the sand. Digging under stones and finding whatever sea creatures washed ashore hiding underneath them. Fishing with his dad or listening to his mom tell stories. Teaming up with his sister to bury his brother (aside from his head, of course). Learning how to surf and laughing about it every time he wiped. Going home to a warm house and having a dinner filled with loud, happy voices and smiles. Even going to school there was a bright point for him. He did like that TT’s schools didn’t require uniforms, but he’d never really minded the uniforms at his school on the islands. He liked the sliding doors for the classrooms, or the way the teachers moved rooms instead of forcing him to either learn the layout of the school or get lost trying. He had his favorite teachers, his favorite subjects, his favorite classmates, and so on. He liked being able to look out the window and watch the palm trees sway in the breeze, thinking about how later he’d run down to the beach and race Riku around until they both fell out from exhaustion.

In his mind, Sora could see all of this so perfectly. But out loud? He wasn’t sure he could ever possibly convey it. Somehow, though, as he told Naminé what he could, she got this wistful look on her face as if she had experienced everything he described as well.

“It sounds like a beautiful place,” she said, grinning widely like she was on cloud nine.

“You should visit someday.”

That earned a sigh from her.

“On my salary? You’d think owning a business would earn bank, but I make just enough to get by. Most of my living expenses come straight out of my paycheck too. I’d take a long time of saving up before I could ever go to the islands.”

Sora wondered if it would’ve been far too forward to offer to take her there. Probably.

“You’ll get there someday,” he told her instead. “I’m sure you will.”

“You know, you’re really cheerful for someone with bad enough luck to end up in here.”

Ha. How many times had he been told he was too cheerful for just about anything.

“Better than being a sourpuss.” Like Roxas. His twin wasn’t exactly mopey, in fact he was usually just about as excitable as anyone, but when he wanted to be sour, he pulled it off to a T. Kinda like their aunt.

Naminé only laughed and nodded, agreeing.

“So, my turn to ask a question, right?” Sora continued. He didn’t have to go to work for another few hours, having the night shift that day, so he figured there was no harm in continuing.

“Ask away.”

He did.

They exchanged questions for as long as Sora had until he started cutting it close. At which point, he asked Naminé to hold his good luck charm for him to pick up the following day, that way he wouldn’t have to lug it around the cultural center. It gave him another reason to go back.

And he found, the following day after work, that that was exactly what he did. And again the next day. And again, and again.


	3. Sibling Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Upped the rating for language.

N: > **So…? How’s your luck been?**

Sora contemplated the text for a moment, taking the time to think back on the past few weeks. He’d been visiting Naminé’s shop just about every day since he’d first met her, just to give her company at first. And yet, after a while, he realized he was just as eager to have her company as he was to give his, and it left him giddy every time he communicated with her. Their conversations had firmly reached the informal stage, enough so that the topic of her good luck charms was small talk now, so this was the first time in a while that she had asked about his luck. Funny, when he thought about it. It was the whole point of her shop, after all.

But then, he hadn’t been visiting her to shop. Occasionally, he’d buy another charm and hand it off to friends and family, but every time he ended up in there they simply spent that time talking. At first it’d been a ‘get to know you’ game between them, exchanging questions back and forth until they reached the point where they knew even the most mundane things about each other. After a while, it’d turned into a daily routine of casual conversations. ‘ _How’s your day been_ ’s and ‘ _How’s working going_ ’s and so on. Sometimes he sat in the back room, an extra room on the first floor that she used for crafting, and watched her make her charms. She really was amazing at them, though she could only make the glass, clay and stitched ones at home. As she said, the metal ones were commissioned. All of them, regardless, had that special quality that made them good luck charms. Sora still hadn’t figured out what that was.

She didn’t talk much about it. For a while, she didn’t talk much about herself period. He didn’t pry, but he made it known that she could trust him if she ever needed to open up. In time, she did so on her own. Little things here and there like the families she’s lived with or the friends she’s made. She’d spent her entire life in Twilight Town, but not always in the same areas. Most of her homes included other children, but they all eventually fell out of contact with one another. The only ones she kept in contact with were the ones that Sora had seen the second day he visited her. Alongside the pink haired guy, er, _Lauriam’s_ biological little sister. And even then, apparently they were the ones who reached out to her. Before she rented out the building to run her shop in, she’d never really stayed in one place for too long. She never really had that sense of ‘home’ until then.

He wondered if that was why she liked hearing him talk about the islands so much…

Either way, he was glad to have made fast friends with her. He didn’t want her to feel lonely, or to not expect people to come back to her shop. And he really liked her, so he was sure he’d have ended up befriending her regardless. She’d certainly seemed as excited about it as he felt, seeing how quickly they’d ended up exchanging numbers. They texted the way they talked: casual conversation and the like. Nothing he really had to think about, since conversation came so naturally to him.

So, this one had thrown him a bit for a loop.

Sitting on a nearly empty tram on the middle of a Sunday meant he had plenty of time to try and think back to the luck he’d been having. But that was the thing.

He couldn’t.

He couldn’t recall a single bad thing.

It was as if any bad luck he’d been having was simply washed away. He was sure if he strained his memory hard enough, he might vaguely recall dropping his keys in the sink earlier but it hadn’t been a big deal as he fished them out before they could get too far down the drain. It was so unimportant to him that it was simply shoved to the back of his mind, never to be thought of again.

By contrast, the good things that happened to him stood out in stark detail.

His entire day had brightened when he’d received a call from his parents that morning, both of whom had been out of town for the holidays. It only got better when Roxas invited him and Xion over for lunch (his current destination) so that they could have a sibling day to themselves. He found himself laughing quietly at the meme war he and Riku had gotten into over text, and smiling widely at the ‘good morning’ message Naminé had sent him during breakfast. These were such little things, things he wouldn’t normally pay much mind too, but all of them suddenly made his day that much better.

He found himself walking out of his apartment to find his neighbors greeting him cheerfully. His car was still in good shape, tucked away under a tree in the parking lot where it could wait until Sora needed it. He had the day off, and no one was frantically calling him in to cover for a no-show coworker. He hadn’t stepped in anything nasty, was early to the tram, and had found it empty, clean and quiet when he’d stepped on.

So, he supposed, yeah. He had been having pretty good luck.

S: > **A lot better :D**

He waited a moment for her to respond, periodically checking out the window to make sure he didn’t miss his brother’s stop, and looking down again when his phone buzzed.

N: > **Glad to hear it :)**

S: > **I’ll make sure to promote your store ;D**

He wondered if she had a social media. He’d be sure to share it with as many people as he could.

N: > **Oh you don’t have to do that**

Except he absolutely did. Not only because he was her friend, but because he wanted to help her business grow. And seeing as he knew first hand that her good luck charms worked—and he patted the paopu charm in his pocket at the thought—he was more than happy to point more customers in her direction.

S: > **Too late. Doing it. Do you have a page or a website I can share?**

It only crossed his mind after he sent the text that she must’ve had a website for all the online orders she filled. Still, he’d never actually clicked on it, so he could’ve used a link.

N: > **It’s luckyluckycharmshop.tt but you really don’t have to**

Copying the link, he shared it on his gram with a message encouraging people to visit, alongside a picture of the store front that he’d taken a while ago when his sister had asked what it looked like.

Speaking of…

Glancing out the window again, Sora realized his stop was indeed coming up.

S: > **I’m happy to. Anyway I’m almost at Rox’s place so I’ll talk to you in a little bit**

N: > **Thank you Sora. Talk to you in a bit**

S: > **Ttfn**

He pulled the cord for his stop and stood, glancing down one more time at his phone when it buzzed again, and smiling at the waving Tigger gif she sent in response. He wished he could talk to her for longer, but he and his siblings rarely hung out after he and Roxas moved out, even more so when Sora had left his and Rox’s apartment. Xion was still living at home, but ‘home’ was on the other side of town so they didn’t see her too often. And Sora and Roxas’ schedules usually clashed, so their close proximity to one another didn’t really help things. He wanted to enjoy the time he spent with them without being distracted.

Sora stepped off the tram and pulled up his contacts, scrolling until he found Roxas and calling him to let him know he was close. More than close, really. Roxas lived half a block from the tram stop.

“ _Hello?_ ”

“Hey, I’m here.”

He felt a grin pull at the corners of his mouth when Roxas sighed exasperatedly.

“ _Well, I’m not. The door’s unlocked if you wanna go ahead in. I had to pick up Broke McNoCar._ ”

“I thought she was getting a ride from Riku?” Sora asked, chuckling.

“ _I thought she was too, but apparently he had to work today and she totally spaced and forgot._ ”

Snorting at that, Sora climbed the steps to Roxas and Hayner’s second floor apartment and invited himself in. He kinda figured this would happen when Xion said she’d get a ride from Riku. After all, Riku did actually work on Sundays.

“It’s sad I know his schedule better than she does.”

“ _Maybe because you two were so attached at the hip I used to wonder if_ he _was actually your twin._ ”

“Oh, ha ha. Anyway, I’m gonna go ahead in. Did you pick her up yet?”

“ _Yeah she’s right here. I’ll be there in a few._ ”

“Kay.”

He closed the front door behind him as he stuffed his phone in his back pocket, glancing over the apartment to see that not much had changed since the last time he’d been over to visit. It was still an odd mixture of clean and messy. Sort of cluttered from the limited amount of space versus the large amount of stuff. Clothes thrown over various surfaces, though none of them littered the floor this time, cups lining the coffee table and decorating the island that barred off the kitchen, knickknacks that invaded every small bit of space from the tv stand to the top of the refrigerator. And yet the floors had a clean sheen to them and the place smelled pretty neutral. A far cry from the disaster it’d been when Sora still lived there.

In the midst of it, of course, lay a familiar figure draped across the couch. A light shown from behind the backrest, from a phone, Sora guessed, and accompanying it came a long stream of muttered profanity.

Sora cleared his throat.

“Hey, Sora,” a bored voice greeted from the couch. Sora waved in that general direction as he shrugged his hoodie off and placed it over one of the dining room chairs.

“Sup, Hayner.”

“Did you come to drop something off, or are you just hanging out?”

Figured he’d forget.

“Sibling day.”

“Shit, that’s today?!” Hayner jumped up from the couch, looking a bit of a mess with his clothes rumpled and his hair sticking up everywhere. “Rox kicked me out for today, so I’m gonna run.”

Yeah, Sora knew why. After their last sibling day, it was agreed that significant others were not allowed.

“Tell him I’m at work or something!” Hayner shouted from the hallway closet as he grabbed his jacket and shoes. Sora huffed in amusement.

“Are you actually going to work?”

“…No?”

“I’ll tell him you left out then.” Roxas was not anal about knowing where his boyfri—fiancé was at all times, so why Hayner felt he needed to tell fibs, Sora couldn’t fathom. He’d probably just go hang out with Pence.

“At least make it seem like I’m being productive.” And with that, Hayner was out the door and Sora was left with an ear-ringing silence in the wake of the slammed door.

Rolling his eyes at Hayner’s antics, he kicked his shoes off and made himself at home, pulling a soda can out of the refrigerator and hopping up on one of the stools by the island. He was as familiar with the place as ever, alongside his brother’s habits, so he knew the tv remote was somewhere in the kitchen where Roxas could easily turn the tv on while he made food…and also wouldn’t have to worry about it getting lost in the couch cushions. It didn’t take long to find it on the counter next to the microwave.

Leaning over, he snatched the remote up and turned the tv on, flicking through channels until he settled on what looked like was the halfway point of Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Just in time, too, as he heard the front door opening, alongside the sounds of his siblings arguing.

“—know I could just help you get a car, but _someone_ wants to ride trams for the rest of her life.”

“I told you, I don’t like driving. I’m perfectly fine using the trams.”

“Except, with the tram it would’ve taken you an hour to get here. I got you here in twenty minutes. Oh, but the trams are _sooo much better_.”

“No one asked you to be a butt about it, Roxas.”

Typical.

“Leave her alone, Rox,” Sora pitched in. “She can stick to the trams if she wants to.”

He never really understood his sister’s aversion to driving, he personally loved it after all, but she made her case about it before and he let her be. Roxas was just being a nag because he was worried about her being on public transit at night, but they all lived in good neighborhoods and she carried pepper spray.

“Thank you, Sora. Hi, by the way,” Xion greeted as she stepped into the kitchen. She was all bundled up despite the mild weather, swinging a large fast food bag around as she waved with one hand and pulled her hat off with the other, revealing a head of black hair marred only by the golden blonde roots at the top of her head. Sora raised an eyebrow at the extra layers but waved back to her, before waving at Roxas. He nodded back and they both started to unwind and make themselves at home as well.

The scent of oily fast food drifted throughout the room, wafting from the greasy bag clutched between gloved fingers. Sora wrinkled his nose at his little sister as she plopped the bag down on Roxas’ counter and started to peel her jacket off.

“You smell like potatoes,” he told her. French fries, specifically. But seeing as she no longer worked in fast food, she had no reason to otherwise smell like potatoes. So he was going to call her out on it like the good brother he was.

“You _are_ a potato,” she shot back.

“Takes one to know one.”

“Children!” Roxas interjected, not even looking at them as he cleared the mess off of the dining room table. “You’re both potatoes, okay? Now stop bickering.”

That was rich, coming from someone who’d just walked in the door bickering.

“Okay, but I’m thirteen minutes older than you so I reserve the right to call you both children,” Sora stated matter-of-factly. Roxas rolled his eyes, of course.

“I think _I_ reserve that right. I’m the only one with a car right now.” Roxas sent a side glance at Xion, who stuck her tongue out at him and looked away.

“Hey, I do have a car! I got it back weeks ago, Rox!” Sora argued.

“Then why are you still using public transportation?”

“I’m not gonna waste an entire December tram pass.”

“Exactly!” Xion exclaimed. “He gets it. Why waste a perfectly good mode of transport?”

“Because it means I don’t have to go pick your lazy ass up. Go get the board game.”

She grumbled but did what Roxas said and went to dig in his hall closet for the activity of the day. They decided on monopoly this time. It was mild enough outside, but no of them really wanted to go out for anything (and Sora wasn’t going to try his luck just for something to go wrong, not when he was feeling so good about everything) and none of them really wanted to marathon movies again since they tended to squabble over what to watch. Already, Roxas was even changing the channel, despite the fact that Sora was indeed enjoying Who Framed Roger Rabbit, to an anime Sora had never seen and therefore wasn’t interested in. He stuck his tongue out at Roxas too.

“Stop being a baby,” he said, even though he reciprocated not a second afterward. His eyes scanned over the apartment for a quick second before he grabbed a big plate out of the cabinet and set it on the table, likely so he could dump their food on it. “Where’d Hayner run off to. I saw him peal out of the parking lot like some maniac.”

Sora shrugged.

“Who knows. He told me to tell you he’s doing something productive.”

“He’s probably picking a fight with Seifer or something.”

“You’re surprisingly chill about that.”

Roxas only rolled his eyes and, as expected, dumped the bag of food onto the plate. Mostly it was a mountain of fries, but three burgers wrapped in foil did plop themselves onto the table when Roxas shook them out of the bag.

“He always does something stupid when he wants me to think he’s being productive. Usually because he thinks I’m not paying attention to him since I’m kicking him out for sibling day.”

“Better he do stupid things out there than hang around in here and paw at you for attention,” Xion huffed, setting the beaten up box of monopoly on the chair they weren’t using and pulling out the board and pieces to set up. It was a regular in their sibling days, having been their main method of settling disputes back home, and it brought a sense of familiarity and nostalgia with it that made the amount of arguing and cursing at each other that they did during a game more than worth it.

“You know he only does that to annoy you two, right?” Roxas snorted. The board was set off to the side of the table so they could all eat, and he was already pulling the foil off of a burger. They were the big ones from Wedge’s joint, so one was more than enough. And that wasn’t even counting the mountain of fries.

Needless to say, Sora was quick to dig in as well, as was Xion.

“The only one he manages to annoy is you in the end anyway,” she pointed out before shoving two fries in her mouth.

“She has a point,” Sora agreed. “We’ve been subjected to you two being handsy for years. At this point, nothing he pulls will get us to leave. Besides, you two are getting married so it’s not like we’re ever gonna escape it.”

To his left, a loud groan interrupted him.

“I’m still really mad at you for not telling me, Roxas! I had to find out from Pence!”

Roxas glared at Sora, who ducked his head sheepishly. The only reason Pence knew was because Sora maybe, kinda, sorta blabbed to him and Olette about the engagement. He was venting about being the only witness when he knew everyone would want to see them get married. It just…slipped out.

Of course, news spread fast and now _everyone_ knew. Sora had landed himself in a bit of hot water there. When he told Naminé about it, she’d been split between laughing at him and comforting him.

Xion, still fuming over being out of the loop for any amount of time longer than Sora, Pence and Olette, waved a french fry frantically at Roxas, talking through a mouthful of them.

“You can’t get married! I’m still in college!”

Roxas’ face scrunched up amusingly. At least, Sora found it amusing how his twin resembled a wrinkly bulldog.

“What does that have to do with literally anything?!”

“Duh, I need the free time to plan your wedding, Roxas. There’s no such thing as free time in college!” she groaned, flecks of food landing on their board. Sora balled up an oily napkin that had fallen out of the bag and tossed it at her, watching as it bounced off her forehead and laughing when she made the same expression Roxas had.

“We’re not having a wedding!” Roxas stressed. “Right, Sora? Didn’t I explain this a million times?”

“Don’t drag me into this.”

“Oh bullshit, you guys are totally having a wedding! You love weddings!” Xion continued.

“Look, first of all, chew your fucking food, you Ape. Secondly, I don’t love weddings. _Sora_ loves weddings.”

Sora wondered if maybe he should intervene this time to reiterate that he wasn’t all that interested in weddings before Xion beat him to the punch.

“Sora likes free food and smiling faces, he couldn’t give less of a shit about the ceremony. You cried when Mom and Dad renewed their vows.”

“And when Aunt Claire got married,” Sora pitched in.

“And when Olette got engaged, and then again at her wedding,” Xion added.

“And at Jessie’s wedding last summer.”

“And when you were invited to your coworker’s wedding.”

“Okay, I get it!” Roxas shouted, throwing his hands up (in defeat, Sora was sure). “I cry at weddings…when my _close friends and family_ are getting married. That doesn’t mean I love weddings!”

“You should love your wedding, Rox,” Xion said. “You’re marrying your most precious person.”

Roxas scoffed lightly, but the look on his face was much softer at the mention of his soon-to-be husband.

“What? That loser?” he asked, smiling fondly. No one fell for what barely amounted to an insult.

“Yes, that loser that you’re head over heels for. And don’t think I don’t see that look in your eyes. You guys would be doing each other a huge disservice if you didn’t hold a wedding.” Xion nodded resolutely at her own conclusion and Sora was inclined to agree. His brother and his fiancé weren’t the most lovey-dovey people in public but he knew they adored each other. They’d kick themselves in their own butts somewhere down the line for not having a wedding. Sure they may have come to the conclusion of getting married from something mundane, but they wouldn’t have really bothered if it wasn’t something they didn’t actually want.

“Also, I can’t believe you asked Sora to be your witness and not me.”

Roxas rolled his eyes at that.

“I thought you were ‘too busy with college work’.”

“Not once finals are done! I’m gonna spend all winter break on this! And then I’m gonna plan _his_ wedding,” she stated, jerking a thumb in Sora’s direction. He raised an eyebrow at her.

“When did this happen?”

“Oh, don’t act like you don’t know. You and Naminé. I don’t even think you were this deep in it with _Kairi_.”

“She has a point.”

Sora balled up another napkin at Roxas for agreeing, grinning to himself when the wrinkle-face returned.

“You’re just trying to change the subject from you and Hayner.”

“And it’s working, so shut up.”

“Seriously, you’re visiting her after work every day. And it’s only been, what, three weeks?” Xion sighed exasperatedly, this time waggling a fry at Sora disapprovingly before shoving the entire thing in her mouth. He rolled his eyes at the dramatics and threw up his hands up.

“We’re not even dating!”

“You might as well be!”

“Seriously, dude.” Roxas put a hand on Sora’s shoulder (and smearing grease on his sleeve), looking unusually serious for such a lighthearted subject. For them, at least. “Ask her on a date.”

“Ask her on a date for Christmas!” Xion pitched in.

“Take her back to Destiny Islands, or something. Make it special.”

“Nah, that’s honeymoon material. Don’t move that fast. Take her out to a movie.”

“That’s boring and typical. Take her up on the clocktower for ice cream.”

“Roxas, she’ll think he’s a serial killer. Take her for a walk in the park. The big one by Sunset Terrace.”

“Take her—”

“Okay, okay!” Sora interrupted. “How about I decide how I’ll take her out on a date?”

Wait…

Sora cringed as both of his siblings gasped loudly and grinned like the evil little trolls they were.

“Did our dear brother just admit he wants to date Naminé, Roxas?” Xion mocked whispered at Roxas. Smirking, he returned the gesture.

“I think he did, Xion. Sounds like you _are_ planning another wedding.”

“Can we not with that? I don’t even know if she wants to go out with me; we’re not anywhere near the stage of getting married.”

It was honestly the farthest thing from Sora’s mind until Xion had brought it up. He’d thought about it a few times before: what it would be like to get married. Live out the dream marriage his parents had made for themselves. Maybe not as young as they were, after all his mother hadn’t even hit twenty yet when his father proposed, but someday. He used to think it’d be Kairi he’d married, until they both ended up struggling through eight months of dating where the feelings weren’t really there. Not in the way they thought they would be. Eventually, they both came to the conclusion that they were better off as friends. From that point, it’d pushed itself into the back of his mind. He focused instead on graduating college, paying his loans off, paying his bills and starting his career. He hadn’t even dated anyone since Kairi, and they broke up two years before. There was no place in his mind for marriage.

Now though…

Well, no. Obviously not. It was far too soon to even let the thought linger on his mind. He’d have to work up the courage to ask Naminé out first. He wasn’t used to such things. Kairi had asked him out, and she was his first girlfriend. He wasn’t exactly the most suave guy around when it came to women; hell, half the time he was clueless around them. Just the idea of trying to figure out where to take her out was daunting, his siblings’ suggestions notwithstanding. And that was if she even said yes…

Honestly, he wasn’t even prepared for the tables to turn on him like this. He knew he liked her, and thinking back to all of his interactions with her, he knew it was a little more than as just a friend. But he wasn’t quite ready to confront that line of thought yet. He _liked_ being just friends with her.

They both needed that time to get more comfortable before anything more happened.

It was just a crush, anyway. He didn’t feel rushed to act on it. And he certainly didn’t need his siblings trying to push him into it.

“Guys, leave it alone,” he said. “My friendship with Naminé isn’t what we’re here to talk about. Let’s just get back to our sibling day.”

“Um, duh Sora. Sibling day is for us to talk to each other so we don’t, like, grow apart or something. We wanna know what’s going on in your life too,” Xion said. It was in a petulant, sisterly tone, but Sora could hear the caring behind it. He knew they were just trying to be helpful, but still…

“It’s not…anything big.” Not yet at least. Not until he was ready for it to be. “Besides, my life is pretty boring so there’s not really anything juicy to tell anyway.”

“Besides the Naminé thing,” Roxas mumbled into his burger.

“Besides the Naminé thing,” Xion agreed. “But we’ll leave it alone for now, I guess. I’ll tease you when you actually do ask her out.”

“And anyway, I thought you were swimming in your own shitty luck for a while. What happened to that?” Roxas asked.

“Yeah, Riku was saying how you were complaining for a while that nothing was going your way. Did your bad luck spell clear up?” Xion added.

Humming in thought, Sora took a bite of his own food and wondered how he’d bring this up without outing…whatever it was going on with Naminé.

“Well…you know how I have this good luck charm—”

“The paopu thing? I thought you just carried that around ‘cause you were so smitten,” Roxas piped in, and Sora reached over and flicked him in the forehead for trying to steer the conversation in that direction again.

“ _No_ , it’s a charm. I gave you and Xion charms too, remember?” Sora nodded his head over to the tv stand where, beneath flashing images of cartoon characters fighting one another, a little glass sea salt ice cream charm rested innocently. He knew Xion’s own version of the charm was sitting on her work desk at home as well.

“Yeah,” she started. “Now that you mention it, I’ve been having some pretty good luck with all my quizzes and homework.”

“Maybe because you actually sit down and study now,” Roxas mumbled, which earned him a flick on the forehead as well.

“Still, I’ve been having a way easier time since you gave me that charm. Besides, haven’t you noticed a difference in your luck too, Roxas?”

Leaning back in his seat, Roxas placed a hand on his chin as he thought back.

“…Yeah, I guess so. I’ve been feeling a lot better about waking up early lately. And me and Hayner did land those Struggle Tournament tickets a couple days ago,” he nodded.

“Maybe because you two actually bothered to do the raffle this time,” Xion teased, chuckling.

There it was again. It was like the people who bought those charms had to actually put forth the effort before anything took effect. Which was…weird. Sora wasn’t sure if good luck was supposed to work that way.

“Anyway, thanks for that,” Xion returned her attention to Sora. “I definitely needed that good luck in these trying times.”

“It’s just finals,” he laughed. He’d never been uptight about his schooling. Sure, it meant he wasn’t exactly the top student in any of his schools, but he wasn’t bottom of the barrel either.

“Ugh. It’s _finals_. I’m gonna need about fifteen more of those good luck charms, just letting you know now,” she whined, plopping her head down on the table. A smush was heard from between her face and the table.

“Tell Naminé to mail them to me,” came her muffled voice as she continued. Out of the corner of his eye, Sora noticed Roxas facepalm. Grinning, he nodded and patted his sister’s back.

“I’ll tell her to send you thirty.”

“Thank—”

“You just have to pay for them.”

His grin grew wider when he heard Roxas’ quiet laughter, and Xion grumbled indignantly.

“You’re supposed to be supportive of your family. You’re such a gremlin…”

“Okay,” Roxas started before Xion could continue pouting into his table. “Let’s finish eating and get to the board game. No more talk about weddings and Sora’s girlfriend and good luck doohickies. We’re gonna play monopoly and I’m gonna wipe the floor with you two.”

Deciding to let the girlfriend comment pass, Sora shrugged in agreement and tucked into the rest of his meal. By the time they’d pulled the board game out, all three of them were covered in fast food grease, red-faced from laughter as they ignored the rules of the game and repeatedly slid Roxas’ piece into the jail space as he tried his hardest to ‘wipe the floor with them’ and sufficiently distracted from all other details of their lives.

Somewhat.

In the back of his mind, it was hard for Sora to forget what his siblings had made him realize about Naminé. And he had a feeling that as he continued to visit her, it’d be harder to ignore as well.


End file.
